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Topic Review (Newest First)

03-27-2014 08:20 PM

angelcraze

I am reviving a thread if anyone cares to respond. I am wondering as well, does anyone know if the MonsterRay is at all beneficial for plants at a 18" depth, for ex. or is it just intended to enhance fish and invert colours and that's all. Because at 37w's for a 48" fixture, it seems like 25 PAR @18" is pretty low. Makes sense only if the fixture is the totally wrong spectrum for plant growth, I think. Has anyone figured things out for sure?

04-28-2013 03:11 AM

topman

Hi, i'm a noob.
I just want to know if i put a 36" monster ray on a Mr.Aqua 12g long with ADA Co2 system, will this light give me enough PAR?

Jbrady that makes sense. I'm looking for a nice blend of natural/color enhancing. So far this seems like the best way to get that effect with LEDs. Maybe a combo light will come out in the near future.

04-11-2013 09:06 PM

jbrady33

Quote:

Originally Posted by zackariah

I'm my opinion it looks unnatural. The seems to make stuff that is not red apear red.

It's similar to a reef tank I think - Corals in nature don't look like that (been diving a few times) and that Actinic blue intense light looks very un-natural - but the result is "Wow - look at that!"

In the freshwater world I can see this light doing the same - It doesn't change the apparent color of your green plants at all, red plants are much richer, fish/shrimp colors are intense.

The light does have a very warm cast, gives a reddish tint to the substrate, wood, etc. That's why I think that Pairing one of these to a Ray 2 would be perfect - the crazy brightness of the Ray2 would swamp out the red cast but the intense colors would remain.

04-11-2013 02:49 AM

Hoppy

It looks like the Monster gives about 1/3 of what the Ray2 gives, and about half what a Fugeray gives. I think there is something off here - perhaps the numbers Lowe gave are for a 24 inch, not 48 inch light??

04-10-2013 10:59 PM

zackariah

Re: MonsterRay on a planted tank! with pics

I'm my opinion it looks unnatural. The seems to make stuff that is not red apear red. If it looks more natural in person let me know. I hope it just looks that way in the pic. Maybe a video link would be more telling.

Thanks for posting a review. Although informative, it doesn't quite answer the question on whether or not it will do anything for coloring up my stem plants. I currently have a 26g with a 24" Ray 2. It grows plants wonderfully, but most of all my stems just grow green. I've been seriously considering this LED to work in tandem with my Ray 2 but I just need to know it's going to actually get my plants to color up, not just look enhanced.

Anyway... Lowe to post some PAR on the 48" Monster Ray (not sure how much is differs from the 24").

According to Lowe:

Here are some quick numbers for you on a 48" MonsterRAY.

Inches directly below unit : PAR

3" : 130
6" : 85
9" : 58
12" : 40
15" : 30
18" : 25

Being that these are ony RED, Green, and Blue LEDs, I found the decrease ratio in PAR in relation to depth very interesting.

Shrimp too! Held it over my shrimp tank, Painted/fire reds doubled in intensity, same with RCS (pics below)

Red Plants - I don't know about boosting growth, but their color was much more pronounced. (Pics below). Hopefully Lowe will get PAR charts like for the other lines.

Driftwood - Have several Crape Myrtle branches in my 36, under regular light they look nice, generic light brown. Under the MonsterRay they look wild - the grain stands out like heavy grained cherry furniture. I'll bet other grained woods do the same.

For me - If there were a small, short one of these I would add it to the FugeRay on my shrimp tank. Unfortunately the shortest is 24" right now. On my big tank, the colors were wild - my wife even commented that the fish still stood out brightly even when they went into the "jungle" of plants, you could see their color flashing between the leaves constantly. (otherwise there are times my tank looks almost fishless - plants are too dense to see them).

Bottom line - a very cool light, brighter than I though, but I won't be able to use it on my 36 - the intense colors and very warm cast don't fit the mellow earth tones of the rest of the room - just like a reef tank would be totally out of place in my living room. (see the last pic to see what I mean). May end up in the trading room

The hot ticket? I think one of these would boost the colors on a Ray2 like crazy, while the Ray2 would give the growth and the intense white would mellow out the warm cast.
In a perfect world I would ask for a Fugeray with the normal 7k LEDs and one of these 3 color LEDS every 2 inches or so. I think that would be an amazing combo light - growth + color without needing high tech.

Shrimp tank on Fugeray Only:

Same tank holding MonsterRay over tank (with Fugeray). Check out the red plant in front! (Don't know what it is, got it from OVT)